Authorities to investigate national team after defeat

Vietnam FA concerned that players might have thrown the game against Malaysia.

Vietnam’s football authorities will investigate the country’s national team amid suspicions of match-fixing after their 4-2 defeat to Malaysia in the semi-finals of the AFF Suzuki Cup.

The home team disappointed a packed house at Hanoi’s My Dinh stadium with a terrible performance littered with defensive errors that gifted Malaysia four first-half goals and allowed them to overtunr a 2-1 first leg deficit.

“The Vietnam Football Federation will immediately ask for police to investigate the match,” VFF deputy chairman Nguyen Xuan Gu told AFP, alluding to the possibility that some players were not giving their all.

“We will seriously punish wrongdoing if we find any. The goals we let in were unacceptable, especially as we were playing at our home stadium,” Gu added.

Vietnam has hit by a number of corruption scandals affecting international tournaments and the local V-league.

In 2007 two Vietnamese footballers were jailed and six others given suspended sentences over the fixing of an under-23 match against Myanmar at the 2005 Southeast Asian Games.

“We are determined to clean up Vietnamese football,” Gu added.

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